Conventional methods of treating pancreatic cancer empirically by surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are usually futile. Improvements are more likely to occur by the design of rational forms of therapy directed against specific abnormalities. We therefore propose to delineate molecular concomitants of pancreatic cancer induced by N-nitrobis(2-oxypropyl)amine in the Syrian hamster. This experimental cancer remarkably mimics human cancer. Individual pancreatic cancers will first be analyzed for enhanced expression and somatic rearrangement of protooncogenes to see whether specific oncogenes characterize them. Secondly, the mRNAs specific for pancreatic cancer will be characterized by cDNA cloning procedures. Neoplasm-specific and growth-specific mRNAs will be compared, and complementary cDNA clones would be prepared. These products would be selected and analyzed by well-established procedures. Finally, DNA sequences of the cDNA clones would be determined, and the product proteins would be elucidated.